Monday, June 13, 2016

Around the turn of the year in late December or January I became interested in the "gems" trend. Mostly I like to figure out the 'how to's' of a new technique and then I can use it when I want but don't usually get hooked for too long. Such a thing happened with gems. They are interesting, and a bit of a challenge at times, but not something I would use all the time. I made these two pieces and then was kind of over it.

I traveled to New Orleans for a set of workshops at a national meeting in February and got to see a good friend from far away in the process. It was really good to catch up with her and we had a wonderful time. I had some time at the hotel before she arrived when it was too late to be walking around the French Quarter by myself so I made a couple of pieces on the brown paper I love to use. I will show both the un-shaded versions and the results of both shading and highlighting.

This spring was a terrifically busy semester for me with a new class with a few new things to teach (Internship), a packed Research class with LOTS of grading of long papers and a great Physics class that was really pretty easy - although I should probably have been more diligent about a few non-AP curriculum things that would have made for much more grading. I will see how it all turned out when the AP grades come out in July I suppose.

Anyway, I have not really had consistent time to draw, and really no time for responding to challenges. I HAVE done some drawing here and there, but not for challenges and never with time to sit down and post. Well, school is over. I have had a week and a half to catch up on sleep and house cleaning and even get a household project done! Then The Diva Challenge about the Beads of Courage Color Run really jumped out at me today. So here goes.

the original wash

I am not one to really work much in color and I have tried to do color washes and never really nailed it. I *think* too much about what I intend to draw on the colors while I am painting and then they come out all stilted and 'planned'. Then when I was going through the portfolio of art projects my daughter brought home I saw the gorgeous "warm" color wash she did in class. I asked her if she trusted me to draw on it and she gave me permission! I had to be very brave to begin drawing and then when it went well at first I needed to be even braver to continue, afraid with each step that I would mess it up! So this was actually done since school was out, but I think it applies for this challenge.

Then over the weekend she and I sat down to make more washes and I made a large one I liked. The colors in the Color Run photos reminded me of these color splashes. I don't have a photo of the original, but I think the result is pretty interesting, sort sea-scape-ish, but not on purpose.

Now I need to be brave again... She made another red, orange and yellow wash that looks great and asked me to draw on it! Ack! I will let you know how it goes (and maybe do some catch-up posts of things I have done since, well, last December)!

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About Me

I am a person of varied but passionate interests. I have always loved both science and art and persue both because I am compelled to. I am currently in my first year of teaching high school science, specifically physics. I still draw or sew when I can, but it is rare that I have the time between grading and planning and taking care of my family of 5.